I have been doing alignments on my car and ive been setting the toe straight everytime but i have -2.6 camber on the drivers side and -1.6 on the right. I set the wheel straight everytime i do an alignment and when i drive it i need to tweak the wheel alittle to the right... but if i let go of wheel it goes straight. i have hit a curb hard on the right side before and i feel like i may have bent something that is causin this lopsided steering. I have new coilovers, upper control arms, new lower balljoints, and tie rods.. ive looked and nothing appears to be bent.. Any thoughts??

 

caster? so, to clarify, you are saying if you coast it goes straight, but under power it drifts?

 

what u mean a real alignment shop?? If i got the specs u think i did it with a piece of string or sumthing?
I work at Firestone and i did it on a Hunter machine.. as far as the caster specs i will post them tomorrow. i left my alignment spec print out at the shop so i will grab it tomorrw. Alright i will look more closely at the subframe next time its on the lift.

It doesnt drift whether im on the gas or not.... it goes straight but when the wheel is turned slightly right, like if i did the alignment with the wheel crooked like that even though i made my suspension adjustments with the wheel straight with a steering wheel holder.

 

alright well i got my specs from work today.
Left wheel Right wheel
Camber= -1.7 Camber= -2.1
Caster= -.6 Caster= -1
Toe= -.01 Toe= 0
SAI=.2 SAI= 5.7
Included angle=-1.5 Included Angle=3.5

Clearly the SAI and included angle on the right look alot different than the left.

 

i wasnt tryin to be a dick man. Ive done the sting alignment thing too but there is no way that i could even come up with the numbers for my car like that.

 

Negative caster? If that isn't a typo, there is a serious issue with the car.

 

Why aren't you measuring the rear toe angles?

 

i didnt post any rear toe angles cause they are all good. And the negative caster is not a typo that is actually what it is. The car is lowered 4 inches so that could be a possible reason? The negative caster is pretty close on both sides, this car has never been in an accidenct but i have hit a curb once on the right side and that is where i feel my problem is

 

Caster should never, I repeat, NEVER be negative (steering axis leaning towards the front of the car). That makes camber go more positive on the outside wheel during turns, which is BAD for handling.

Also that SAI is of noticeable concern. I'm not sure what spec is supposed to be, but that much of a difference between left and right could be a huge issue. Since your camber doesn't look too bad, I'm guessing you have adjustable upper control arms?

I'm betting you have issues with your subframe and where the suspension components bolt to the subframe. You may end up having to get the car on a frame machine at a body shop to determine the extent of your issues.

 

i dont have adjustable control arms but is there a possibility that because my car is lowered so much that the caster went negative? This vehicle happens to be a 98 CRV and its lowered 4 or more inches so the geometry is WAY off of spec. I was thinking about bringin my car to a body shop or something to see what is up with this. Tryin to get things straightened out.... literally haha

 

Lowering (or raising) a vehicle has no affect on caster, which is the angle of the knuckle longitudinally.

It isn't like camber, which is affected by height changes, and is the angle of the wheel laterally.

 

a radius rod car can effect caster at extreme lowering, but not on 3 point arms.
you need to check you lower arm bushings, then it comes down to frame/crossbar alignment.
You don't have to correct the camber, but I would anyway. at least make both sides the same.


from alldata:

 

Good information, but a 98 CRV doesn't have radius rods...

UCA bushings can also change caster, but I'd bet that the most likely culprit is the compliance bushing.

 

With a double wishbone setup like we have on these Hondas, I don't see how the SAI could be so massively far off from each other on each side of the car, yet camber is only 0.4° difference side-to-side. I wonder if an error was made when the machine was measuring SAI? Don't you have to turn the wheels back and forth with the sensors on the wheels for the machine to get the SAI reading?

 

I haven't done an alignment in ages, our machine broke and the boss said to hell with it. Too expensive to keep repairing. I am pretty sure though that you would not get a toe reading until you did the wheel swing. I admit I don't know what SAI means, but that is simply the thrust angle right? Which would effectively be the same thing, front/rear toe and thrust all based on doing that.

I've also seen some people do an alignment and never pull the locking pins out of the floating plates in the back.

 

I feel like the SAI could be a machine error and turning the wheels back and forth during the alignment is measuring caster sweep. I did an alignment on a stock 98 crv like mine today except it wasnt lowered haha and the caster was also -1. It isnt in spec but this leads me to believe that these vehicles are just like that. A civic obviously would have positive caster being a car and that is how most cars a designed. And i also dont see how my SAI can be so far off if the cambers are close. I might be able to get some lift time at my job and see what the lower control arm bushings look like. The uppers are new so i kno they are not the culprit

 

Pretty much every single vehicle made since radial tires were put into use has positive caster.

Bias ply tires deformed at high speed, and trailed enough to offset the negative caster of old cars.

Negative caster is like a shopping cart wheel, which turns to face whatever direction it is pushed in, and isn't something you would ever want on the front of a car.

A CRV should have positive caster.

Sounds like the machine isn't reading correctly if it is reporting a stock CRV with negative caster.

I can't speak on SAI.

 

i am starting to think that the machine may have a fault. But on this crv it had postive .3 caster on one side and negative 1 on the other. Im not sure if any of u have ever driven a stock 1st gen crv but the steering is REALLY easy so i can believe the caster is close to 0.

I put on my 18in wheels today and im runnin a 225 40 tire and now my steering wheel is straight.... how does that happen? hahah

 

I've had my Integra at 0* caster. It wandered all over the freeway trying to go straight, and with power steering could be turned with just a single finger. Absolutely hated it.

I've also ran +4* of caster, and loved everything but the massive bumpsteer that resulted.

Unless one or more of the previous wheels and/or tires were screwed up, it shouldn't have changed the angle of the steering wheel.